At outdoor gatherings where people gather to watch a certain event, such as music festivals and sports tournaments, attendees often carry various items of different sizes, shapes, and weights with them to the area where they will be seated for the event. It is common for attendees to bring their own folding chairs, umbrellas, food, beverages, cameras, blankets, and other items that might be desired during the event. Presently no carrier is designed to easily transport the items of disparate dimensions that attendees take with them to comfortably spend a day outdoors.
Handcarts are two-wheeled carts for moving relatively lightweight objects by hand, by pushing or pulling the cart. Handcarts are generally a rigid open box of sorts that is mounted to two small solid tires, and are sometimes collapsible. Handcarts are suited to carrying objects that fit entirely within the box, such as food, beverages, cameras, blankets and the like. However, a handcart doesn't accommodate long tube-like objects such as folding chairs or beach umbrellas. Another disadvantage is that when a two-wheel box cart is towed over a rough surface, the hard tires of the cart do nothing to absorb any shocks, and the shocks of the rough surface are transferred directly to the cart, damaging the contents therein and making the cart unstable. In muddy or wet terrains, the tires 20 of a two-wheel box cart may sink into the ground, making further movement of the cart difficult. Further, even if collapsible, the rigid box makes the cart quite bulky even when it is empty, so that transporting it in a car to and from the outdoor event is problematic.
Handtrucks are also two-wheeled carts, but they are used for moving relatively heavy objects by hand, and generally consist of a tall, rectangular, rigid planar framework with handles at the top and a metal blade at the bottom that is inserted beneath a load, the entire assembly being tilted backward until balanced for easy pushing or pulling. Handtrucks are better suited to carrying long objects than handcarts, but do not carry smaller items well because they fall off the blade unless they are contained in a separate carrier. Handtrucks usually have air-filled tires that are substantially bigger than handcart tires, which makes for a smother ride on hard surfaces, but handtrucks do not fare well on soft ground due to the weight of the cart. Finally, handtrucks are not collapsible. It would be desirable to have a single cart that easily transports items of disparate dimensions smoothly over uneven and soft terrain.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a cart for carrying items commonly used at outdoor gatherings. In is another object to provide a single cart to transport items of disparate dimensions in a secure and convenient manner, while negotiating rough terrain with ease and being foldable into a compact, lightweight structure.